Istanbul Basaksehir vs Copenhagen
Olympiakos vs Wolves
Rangers vs Bayer Leverkusen
Wolfsburg vs Shakhtar Donetsk
Inter Milan vs Getafe
Sevilla vs Roma
Eintracht Frankfurt or RB Salzburg vs Basel
LASK vs Manchester United
The matches are set to be played on 12 and 19 March.
A man has been arrested after Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola’s emails were allegedly hacked. Manchester police say investigations are ongoing but a 30-year-old has been released after being questioned. The Sun newspaper claims to have spoken to an IT contractor who says the emails contained players’ contact details and information on transfer talks. It’s claimed Guardiola was targeted in 2017 with the man attempting to sell details for £100,000.
Football fans in Nigeria are in for a big thrill as Samuel Eto’o Fils, one of Africa’s greatest football legends has arrived in Lagos for the launch of the 2020 edition of Castle Africa 5s, the continental leg of the Trophy 5-A-Side developmental football tournament. Eto’o arrived in Lagos yesterday and was received by the Trophy Lager team in company of International Breweries management and members of the sports media.
Liverpool say they are seeing sustained growth across all areas of the club after announcing a pre-tax profit of £42m and increased turnover for last season which saw them win their sixth European Cup. In the club’s annual financial accounts for the year to May 31, 2019, published on Thursday, Liverpool announced that turnover had increased by £78m to £533m, with media revenue increasing by £41m to £261m. Commercial revenue was also up by £34m to £188m and match revenue increased by £3.5m to £84m. The club spent a record £223m on Alisson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri during this period, with players including Danny Ings and Dominic Solanke leaving Anfield.
Cameroon attacker Christian Bassogog has announced he will donate 10m CFA Francs ($16,000) to Cameroonian students living in areas of China stricken by the deadly coronavirus. The 24-year-old, who joined the Chinese Super League club Henan Jianye in 2017, is currently in Yaounde while football is suspended in China due to the virus. Cameroon’s embassy in China says there are close to 300 Cameroonians, mainly students, living in Hubei Province, considered the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic.
Few journeys to the top of professional football can compete with the story of Alphonso Davies – the Bayern Munich youngster who starred against Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday. Born in a refugee camp in Ghana in 2000, his parents had fled fighting in the second Liberian civil war. They then moved to Canada as refugees when the player was five years old. Davies joined the Vancouver Whitecaps youth set-up in 2015 at the age of 14, before making his MLS debut a year later, and his big break came in the summer of 2018. That was when European giants Bayern agreed a Major League Soccer record £9.84m fee to sign the player the following January – and the teenager quickly found himself rubbing shoulders with superstars.
Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski will miss the second leg of their Champions League tie against Chelsea after being ruled out for four weeks with a leg injury. The Poland international assisted two Serge Gnabry goals and scored a third as Bayern won 3-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg on Tuesday.
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Dele Alli has been charged by the Football Association over a post on social media about coronavirus. Alli, 23, put a video on Snapchat in which he joked about the outbreak and appeared to mock an Asian man. He later deleted the post and released a new video on Chinese social media platform Weibo to apologise, saying: “I let myself down and the club.”
Glasgow Rangers backed up last week’s stunning comeback by producing a poised performance to dump Sporting Braga out of the Europa League and reach the last 16. Ryan Kent’s calm, breakaway finish coupled with a strong defensive display means the Ibrox side are in the last 16 in European competition for the first time since 2011.
Manchester City’s appeal against their two-year ban from European club competition has been registered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Premier League champions were also fined 30m euros for serious breaches of UEFA’s financial regulations. City chief executive Ferran Soriano has said the breaches are simply not true. CAS says “it is not possible” to say when the matter will be resolved. CAS arbitration procedures involve an exchange of written submissions between the parties while a panel of arbitrators is convened to hear the appeal.
Former Chelsea defender Celestine Babayaro has said that while he welcomes ex-players being involved in Nigeria coaching set-up he questions Joseph Yobo’s credentials. His comments come after his former international team-mate and ex-Everton star Yobo was appointed as assistant coach of the Super Eagles two weeks ago. Babayaro, who won an Olympic gold medal with Nigeria at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, said any such appointment must be backed by requisite qualifications. The duo were in the Nigeria squad at both the 2002 World Cup and two years later at the Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova is “saying goodbye” to tennis at the age of 32. In an article written for Vogue and Vanity Fair, Sharapova said her body “had become a distraction” after a struggle with shoulder injuries. The Russian won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2004 aged 17 and completed the career slam – all four major titles – by winning the French Open in 2012. In 2016, she served a 15-month ban after testing positive for meldonium.
Former Olympic 1500m champion and three-time world champion Asbel Kiprop says he is turning his back on athletics to try motorsport. Kiprop won gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 but is serving a four-year doping ban imposed in April 2019.
Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling has been cleared to play in the Champions League last-16 tie against Real Madrid on Wednesday. Manager Pep Guardiola confirmed the news at his media conference ahead of the game at the Bernabeu. The England forward has been out since suffering a hamstring injury in the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham on February 2 but is in line to return in Spain. Guardiola said: “Raheem is fit. His physical condition and regeneration is amazing. He said he could have played against West Ham and Leicester but the doctor said it was too soon. But that was a good sign.”
Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren says he would be “disappointed” if Deontay Wilder exercised his option for a world heavyweight title rematch. Wilder was stopped by the Briton on Saturday in Las Vegas, but a clause in the contract for that fight allows him another bout. The American has indicated he will take the fight, but Warren wants Fury’s next opponent to be Anthony Joshua. “I prefer to go straight to Joshua, but that is the contract,” he said.
Dillian Whyte has rubbished Deontay Wilder’s complaints about the Tyson Fury defeat, but still wants to settle his feud with the American, even without the WBC title. The south Londoner was denied the opportunity to inflict a first defeat on Wilder, who suffered a seventh-round stoppage loss to Fury at the weekend that ended his WBC title reign. Wilder later suggested that his extravagant ring walk outfit was too heavy and weakened his legs before the opening bell.
Zimbabwe has been barred from hosting any international matches until further notice after its main stadiums failed to meet required standards. Zimbabwe’s FA (ZIFA) says the Confederation of African Football (CAF) took the decision after inspecting stadiums in November. It means that Zimbabwe’s key 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Algeria next month will now have to be played in a neutral venue.
Kobe Bryant’s widow has sued the owner of the helicopter which crashed in fog and killed her husband and their teenage daughter. Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit alleging wrongful death claims the pilot was careless and negligent by flying in cloudy conditions and should have aborted the flight. The pilot, Ara Zobayan, was among the nine people killed in the crash last month. The lawsuit came as thousands attended a public memorial service for the basketball legend and his daughter at the arena where the NBA superstar played most of his career.
Top-flight Egyptian side Zamalek face punishment after failing to turn up to the Cairo derby against rivals Al Ahly on Monday. It comes after sanctions were handed to players and officials from both clubs following a brawl when the teams met in last week’s Egyptian Super Cup. Zamalek say they intended to play but had been delayed in traffic. However, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) said there were “no obstacles” holding up the team bus. The EFA apologised to fans and say it will take disciplinary action against Zamalek.
Five Serie A matches will be played behind closed doors this weekend – including Juventus’ match at home to Inter – because of coronavirus. Matches at Udinese, AC Milan, Parma and Sassuolo will take place without fans. Games at Lazio, Napoli, Lecce and Cagliari will go ahead with supporters as normal, but Sampdoria’s match on Monday is yet to be decided upon. Italy has put towns in northern Italy into lockdown after 229 people tested positive and seven died.
Naija Sports Crib 